Nuneaton-born film director Ken Loach has won the Outstanding British Film prize at this year’s Baftas for I, Daniel Blake - his gritty portrayal of life in benefits Britain.

The acclaimed film maker launched a broadside on the Government as he collected the award on Sunday night.

The award was the first of the night and Mr Loach, who is no stranger to controversy, apologised for making a political speech so early in the evening.

He said: “Thank you to the academy for endorsing the truths of what the film says, which hundreds and thousands of people in this country know, the most vulnerable and poorest are treated by the Government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful, a brutality that extends to keeping out refugee children we promised to help and that’s a disgrace too.

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“Films can do many things, they can entertain, terrify, they can make us laugh and tell us something about the real world we live in - sorry it’s early for a political speech - and in that real world it’s getting darker and in the struggle that is coming between rich and poor and the wealthy and the privileged and the big corporations and politicians who speak for them.

“The rest of us on the other side - film makers know which side they are on and despite the glitz and glamour of occasions like this, we are with the people.

“Thanks for this.”

Dave Johns, Ken Loach, Rebecca O'Brien and Paul Laverty with the award for Outstanding British Film at the Baftas (Image: PA)

The film, a stark take on one man’s battles to navigate his way through the complex benefits system and survive, beat other titles such as Denial, Notes On Blindness and the JK Rowling-penned Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

Speaking earlier in the day Mr Loach, aged 80, also had some words of advice for disaffected Labour voters who are contemplating switching their allegiance to Ukip and urged anyone “thinking of deserting the left and moving to the right” to watch I, Daniel Blake.

He said the film brings home to viewers that there are thousands of people in the situation that his characters are in.

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He said: “That is, that their lives are turned into chaos when their income is stopped and this is a conscious cruelty by this Government.

“They know the brutality they are inflicting and it is a disgrace that they are still there.

“Anybody who would think of voting Labour but then changes to Ukip should really look at this because if Ukip and the far right get in this will get worse.”

On bringing politics to the Bafta stage, Loach said: “It’s an obligation, you can’t do a film like this and talk showbiz, it’s the real lives for hundreds of thousands of people.

“When you see the reality, you can’t accept we can treat people like this. You see their lives in chaos, desperate for food. Cinema can do this. It can do all the ritzy glitzy stuff but it can do this as well.”

He concluded by saying people had a “moral responsibility” to get rid of the Government.